John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints
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External Links - U
Please report any broken links using the "EMail me" link at the bottom of this page.
Verified Jul-02.
Verified Jul-02.
U-Haul rent trailers, trucks and vans, including one-way rentals. Verified Feb-04.
News stories about UK airports. Verified Nov-06.
Includes some very useful information for British visitors to the USA and Canada. Verified Jun-04.
"A FlyDrive planning resource site written by a British traveller to the USA, augmented by site visitor comments." Verified Jun-03.
UK-Based Companies Offering Flights To And Holidays In The USA Or Canada
See separate section.
When I visited this site in Aug-02 it was under construction. Verified Aug-02.
Recently acquired by Valero. Verified Aug-04.
This site includes a very interesting section on the history of the company which includes a collection of photographs. Verified May-99.
Update: On 9-Dec-02 United Airlines entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection but so far is continuing to operate. Verified Jul-02.
Includes some very useful information for British visitors to the USA and Canada. Verified Jun-04.
United States - Information For Each State
Official web sites for almost all American states can be found at http://www.state.xx.us, where xx is the official two letter abbreviation for the state. Some of these sites include tourist and state park information.
The US Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for civil engineering works such as dams and associated locks; this site contains information on some of these works. Verified Apr-97.
This organisation is responsible for the production of banknotes in the USA (the US Mint is responsible for coin production). This site includes full details of US banknotes past and present, plus an excellent FAQ page. Verified May-02.
Verified Mar-03.
The BLM administers vast tracts of public land, mainly in the west, including many areas and facilities open the public for recreational use. Verified Feb-04.
The US Bureau Of Reclamation is responsible for many aspects of water resource management in the West, including numerous dams, hydroelectric schemes and water distribution systems. Some USBR facilities are open to the public. Their web site has plenty of information about the USBR dams. Verified May-04.
Verified Sep-00.
This site offers a brief summary of population and other statistical information for each US state and county. Verified Sep-00.
This site provides convenient access to the consumer-related sections of various official US Government Department sites. Verified May-01.
Verified Apr-97.
Verified Sep-99.
Verified Feb-00.
A useful summary of average gas (petrol) prices by region of the USA and grade. Verified Aug-02.
The "Visa Services" section includes full details of visa requirements for visitors to the USA from Britain and how the Visa Waiver Programme operates. It also has information on machine readable passport and biometric passport requirements. The site also has links to some US travel information sites. Verified Jun-04.
Verified Dec-98.
Verified Jul-00.
This web page has an animated GIF file showing the historical expansion of the US and the development of US state borders. Be sure to set your browser to show animated GIF files, otherwise you will only see the first frame. Verified Sep-03.
A very useful summary. Verified Sep-03.
Verified Jul-97.
Includes information on current delays at major US airports. The information appears in windows; to save it you must select it, use CTRL/C to copy it, then paste it into a program such as Notepad and save it from there. The site has several other sections offering other information. Verified Sep-02.
Verified Apr-97.
Includes links to web sites of locations along the route of the expedition. Verified Jan-04.
Verified Jul-02.
This page offers a detailed description of this historic highway. Verified Oct-02.
Available in the form of Adobe Acrobat PDF files, MUTCD provides images and full details of usage of all the road signs and traffic light configurations commonly used in the United States. This site also offers the Standard Highway Signs (SHS) manual, again in the form of Adobe Acrobat PDF files. SHS has full technical drawing details of the design of each sign, which will be of interest to anyone wishing to manufacture or replicate signs. Verified Jul-02.
Includes links to all state Department Of Transport sites. Verified Sep-02.
A very useful basic guide to driving in the USA, organised as seven chapters with one web page per chapter. I couldn't find an Adobe Acrobat PDF file version, unfortunately. Verified Jul-02.
Verified Mar-02.
Verified Sep-97.
Verified Sep-97.
May only be available in season. Verified Sep-01.
This page offers a gateway to information on the 155 National Forests and twenty National Grasslands throughout the USA. Information on each forest or grassland can be reached by its name, by the state or region in which it is located, or via an interactive map. This page is probably the best method of accessing the wealth of excellent and useful material available on the Forest Service's web site. Verified May-01.
Verified Sep-97.
Verified Mar-02.
Information mainly intended for schoolchildren. Verified Oct-01.
This site acts as a portal to the 20,000 US Government web sites which between them offer over 27 million web pages. It is organised by subject rather than by department name. Verified Sep-00.
This site, greatly favoured by the Scout Report over the similar FirstGov site, had a message on its home page stating that it was no longer available when I checked it in December 2001.
An excellent source of good advice for consumers and contact addresses of numerous US consumer organisations and relevant state and federal agencies. Also included is an extensive database of company addresses to which customer complaints can be sent. The document is available in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) (1634KB download), HTM or TXT formats. Verified May-99.
Equivalent to the UK's Stationery Office (previously called HMSO). Verified Sep-96.
A tour of the US government hosted by a cartoon of Benjamin Franklin. There are separate sections for children of different ages. This would probably also be a very useful introduction to the subject for foreigners. Verified Mar-02.
This site provides detailed information about each of the US federal government departments. Each section of the 690 page manual can be downloaded in TXT and PDF format. Verified Sep-00.
Verified Sep-00.
See also Medicare (Verified Sep-00).
Although it isn't initially obvious on entering this site that it refers to the museum in Washington DC, there is a postal address on one page which removes any doubt. Verified Nov-99.
Verified Jan-00.
Over 30,000 photographs from Denver Public Library. Verified Aug-00.
Maps and photographs illustrating the connection between the geography and the literature of the USA. Verified Jan-00.
Diaries of forty-nine pioneers who made their way westward across America to Utah, Montana, and the Pacific from 1846 to 1869. Verified Sep-02.
This organisation is responsible for the production of coins in the USA (the Bureau Of Engraving And Printing is responsible for banknote production). This site includes fill details of US coins past and present, plus an excellent FAQ page (to obtain all questions and answers, leave the search fields at their default values and just click the "Search" button). Verified May-02.
Verified Sep-00.
Detailed current information on large wild fires in all states. Verified Mar-02.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a division of the US Department of Commerce. Amongst other activities, the NOAA operates a network of radio stations which broadcast information about extreme weather conditions such as hurricanes and tornadoes, plus other natural and man-made emergencies such as earthquakes, tsunami (tidal waves), volcanic eruptions, chemical and nuclear pollution incidents, etc. The first link has information about NOAA Radios, the second about NOAA more generally. Both links Verified Sep-02.
Includes a facility to subscribe (free of charge) to an electronic version of the GoParks newsletter, sent via email. Verified Oct-02.
Includes extensive detailed information on all areas administered by the National Park Service, including in many cases maps and photographs. Verified Feb-04.
Information for all areas administered by the US National Park Service. Verified Mar-97.
Verified May-00.
Verified Mar-97.
United States National Park Service - Index by State
An index by state can be found at http://www.nps.gov/parklists/xx.html, where xx is the official two letter abbreviation of the state.
Verified Oct-03.
From the National Park Service home page, select the Info Zone option, then the Park Maps option and then the desired park or other area from the lengthy dropdown list. Maps are available for most of the US National Park Service areas (national parks, national monuments, national recreational areas, etc) in JPG and Adobe Acrobat PDF format. In most cases separate maps of both the park itself and the surrounding region are available. These are high quality digital images, not scanned from printed documents. Because of the high quality and level of detail, file sizes tend to be fairly large. This is by far the best source of maps of NPS areas that I have so far found and is a wonderful resource for potential visitors. Verified Feb-04.
This page offers a number of very useful national maps of the entire US national park system, mainly in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. Some individual sections of the NPS web site include maps of each park, as does the University of Texas Map Collection web site. Verified Dec-00.
Verified Jan-03.
Verified Mar-97.
From the NPS home page, select Info Zone, then Digital Image Archives. Although the photographs state which NPS area they show, unfortunately there is as yet no other information. Verified Feb-04.
This service appears to be for making reservations for campgrounds and tours only, not reservations for hotel/motel accommodation at National Park lodges, etc.
Verified Jun-99.
Verified Sep-02.
Verified Feb-98.
This magnificent personal site contains a vast number of high quality images of American road signs and highway marker shields. Verified Aug-06.
For the visitor from abroad on holiday to the USA, the lists of most popular names given to babies may be one of the more interesting sections of this web site. Verified Dec-02.
An entertaining online quiz. Verified Sep-03.
This web page has an animated GIF file showing the expansion of the US and the development of US state borders. Be sure to set your browser to show animated GIF files, otherwise you will only see the first frame. Verified Sep-03.
This personal site has images of all the American state highway marker shields, plus examples of Interstate, US Highway, County Road and Forest Road marker shields. Verified Feb-98.
This personal site has images of all the American state highway marker shields. Verified Feb-98.
Verified Jan-99.
Detailed current information on large wild fires in all states. Verified Aug-00.
Verified Oct-00.
Virtual reality tours of over eight hundred universities and colleges in the USA, mainly intended for use by prospective students and their parents. Verified Mar-02.
Verified May-04.
A member of the Ivy League. Verified Aug-99.
This site has an extensive but not quite complete collection of scanned images of the extremely useful maps from the leaflets for each of the US National Park Service areas (National Parks, National Monuments, etc). Unfortunately the image files are large and downloading is slow. Verified Jul-02.
Verified Aug-02.
Jan Martin's personal site has airport codes, aircraft codes, airline codes and other information such as details of the runways at each airport. Although the site is primarily intended for use with flight simulator computer programs, it is also of considerable interest to anyone travelling by air. Verified Feb-03.
UK-based holiday operator. This company publishes a very useful North America Travel Planner brochure, available free of charge on request via their web site. From the home page select the "Brochure Requests" option. Verified Feb-02.
Verified Jul-02.
Verified Jun-04.
A very interesting list of many notable railroad bridges in the USA. Verified Jun-04.
Categorised by state. Verified Feb-98.
While primarily an advertisement for the printed book of the same name, this site does also offer a small amount of information on the subject. Verified Jan-03.
A good collection of photographs, mainly of the National Parks, but there are no thumbnails and the full size images are rather slow to load. Verified Aug-99.
This highly recommended one-man company site offers a large amount of statistical and practical information for each American state. Verified Dec-99.
This family steakhouse restaurant chain has a limited number of locations in Iowa, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. This web site was operative in Mar-00 but failed in Mar-02.
USA Today is the United States' only national newspaper (although some other newspapers are distributed nationally). This site includes current news stories and weather information. Verified Mar-02.
Includes current temperature and precipitation (rainfall etc) maps for the USA and Canada plus forecasts for many individual cities. Verified Sep-02.
The monthly average high and low temperatures, precipitation and snowfall for each of the major US National Parks. Verified Sep-02.
This site offers basic tourism information for each US state, including links to each official state park web site. Verified Dec-00.
This site offers some very useful practical hints for visitors to the USA, plus useful information on a fairly small number of destinations and a good collection of photographs. Verified Dec-00.
The fascinating diary of a year-long trip by a family who just "walked away from it all, sold their home and hit the road". Highly recommended. Verified Oct-97.
This site offers useful and interesting information about the state of California. Verified Jan-04.
Verified Jan-04.
Includes descriptions of the following scenic highways: the Burr Trail, the Hell's Backbone Road, the Hole In The Rock Road and the Smokey Mountain Road. Verified Feb-06.
This site includes a very interesting section on the Golden Spike National Historic Site, including information about the ceremony which marked the completion of the Transcontinental Railway, how the site later fell into disuse and the more recent establishment of the National Historic Site. Verified Sep-00.
This excellent site includes photographs. Note that the folder name in the URL is spelt "souteast", not "southeast". Verified Feb-98.
Verified Jul-97.
Verified Jul-97.
Official site. Verified Feb-98.
Verified Feb-02.
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External Links
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As with all the other pages on this personal web site, all the information on this page is solely the opinion of the author, who has no connection whatsoever with any of the companies and organisations mentioned other than as an actual or potential customer.
About this personal web site JohnCletheroe
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Most recently modified 28-Nov-06